BURNED HOUSE OF NIGHT BOOK 7
by Mockingfire
Summary: my version of burned- house of night #7 I own no rights to the characters in this fan fiction they belong to pc and kristen cast. CONTAINS SPOILERS zoey is dead. what will happen now will she return? or will the world succumb to Kalona and Neferet?
1. Chapter 1

_**zoeys pov**_

_Where am I? _zoey thought. She looked around her, but there was only an eerie darkness it wasn't a sinister gloom just strange

for she felt no fear only empty like she was missing something, but she couldn't remember what that something was in fact she couldn't remember anything only her name she looked around for some clue of what she had lost but the darkness was filled only with others like herself, lost spirits . Suddenly the blackness started to stretch out like a rubber band getting longer and longer. she found herself alone in a long jet-black tunnel and at the other end was a tiny pin prick of light.

Zoey stood up and started towards it. but as she tried to reach it. The light seemed to edge backwards, away from her. She started to run but try as she might she could get no closer. She fell to her knees in defeat.

Then, the light started hurtling towards her. Scrambling to her feet again in alarm zoey started to back away but the light kept coming, it engulfed her in a single motion. As the light made contact the voice of Nyx sounded in her mind

' _you must return now, but remember my daughter, love is the key' _and

As darkness enveloped her again, she remembered.

_**starks pov**_

'I must find Erce. There's still a chance -though unlikely- that Zoey might still awake' Darius said.

But Stark knew the truth there was no chance she…Zoey, was gone. her soul had shattered when Heath was killed. She was not coming back, not ever.

The others slipped out of the room behind him, all trying to muffle their sobs.

Stark felt a hand on his shoulder but didn't lift his head. 'Stark?' it was Aphrodite but it didn't sound like her, her voice had lost its egotistic tone and was filled with emotions that he didn't think she could feel for anyone, even her self. It was desperate and despairing so much so that he hardly recognised it. 'is she really… I mean there's still a chance isn't there, that Zoey might …?' she implored pleadingly.

'no' Stark said softly his voice torn with anguish and laced with tears.

Her hand on his shoulder moved away then there was a dull thump

behind him, followed by a muffled cry.

Stark turned to see Aphrodite hunched over sobbing uncontrollably.

'No I don't believe it. She can't be gone, she _can't _be.'

Her tears were no consolation to Starks broken heart, if anything it just made it worse, but mostly it just infuriated him. Why should anyone else be allowed to be more upset than him, it was _his_ loss, _his_ heart that had been torn apart not anyone else's, so what right had they to weep more than him?

Aphrodite seemed to sense the change in Stark's emotions and raised her head. The empty expression on her tear stained face, cut his sour thoughts off abruptly. What was he thinking? Of course they should be sad, Zoey had been their friend, they had known her longer than he had, if anything _they_ should be annoyed with _him for thinking that somehow he owned her, that she belonged to him and him only. Zoey had been loved by many people; Damien, Shaunee, Erin, Stevie Rae, Aphrodite, grandma redbird, Darius, not to mention people like sister Mary Angela, Lenobia, Dragon Langford, Heath, Erick Night(even if he was a dick most of the time) and though he hated to admit it, Kalona too._

_He could have continued his mental list but at that moment the others walked back in closely tailed by Erce, who at the sight if Zoey lying motionless in Starks arms and Heath's body which still lay crumpled on the floor where he had fallen, drew in a sharp breath._

'_Who did this?' she demanded. It was Darius who answered considering as no one else could answer coherently for crying- though his eyes were slightly red around the edges and when he spoke his voice wavered slightly. 'it was Kalona. He killed the human boy, Zoey threw spirit at Kalona to try and stop him but was too late, and her soul shattered, Stark said he felt it, he says that she wont come back, that she can't. Is it true? surely there must be something you can do to help?'_

_Erce didn't reply to Darius, she instead addressed Stark ' you are the young priestess's warrior' it was more of a statement than a question but Stark replied anyway though with obvious difficulty 'yes, or I was but not anymore'_

'_And why is that?' she asked calmly. _

_Stark stopped crying and looked up at Erce his red-rimmed eyes filled with fury. 'you know bloody well why!' he yelled so loudly that Damien and the twins took an involuntary step backwards, Aphrodite didn't move she just stared wide-eyed with shock and Darius moved in front of her in case Stark attacked them for they had seen him angry, but never like this this was beyond mad he was livid! Erce was the only one who didn't react to his outburst. _

_Stark, too furious to notice their reactions, continued in a voice that was more of a snarl, his eyes shone red. 'you know exactly why you bitch, zoey's soul shattered you know what that means don't you? she's dead!' He turned to the rest of them now 'she's dead! that's what it means so every fucking one of you get it inside your thick heads, Zoey is gone and she's not coming back, not ever, understand? Good, cause I'm not saying it again so now you can all go away and cry and hug each other and tell each other that everything will be fine, just go away and stop torturing me! His voice broke at the end he dropped to the ground without warning -he had risen during his rupture - and buried his face into zoey's dark hair._

_Then there was silence broken only by Starks heartbroken sobs everyone just stared at each other in astonishment. Even Erce's cool expression had softened into something that looked like pity. 'I'm sorry' she said after a while 'if you wish I will try to help her, but I think you are right.'_

_Stark didn't move. Aphrodite moved away from the group of friends in the corner and walked cautiously towards him. 'Stark, I think we should let her try, if we don't then there's no chance for Zoey, but if we let Erce help she might have a chance we wont know until we've tried' Stark didn't look up but she could tell he had heard her, so she continued. 'please Stark, I know this is hard for you but its hard for us too, you have to think of Zoey now, of what's best for her that's what you want isn't it? But think about it first. Well stick by your decision whatever you choose because we trust you to do what's best for Zoey. if you say no then we will do nothing but think about the fact that if by some miracle we could have saved her and you said no and she would dies because of it, but if you say yes then we might not be able to help her and she would die anyway, but at least we'd have tried'_

_Slowly Stark nodded 'thank you' whispered Aphrodite and gently hugged him, Damien Shaunee and Erin came and hugged him too and that's how they stayed until Erce spoke 'I will take you to the infirmary, follow me._


	2. AUTHOR'S NOTE

SORRY IF YOU THOUGHT THIS WAS THE NEXT CHAPTER I KNOW HOW ANNOYING AUTHORS NOTES ARE. JUST TO SAY I WIL BE POSTING THE NEXT CHAPTER LATER THIS MONTH.

- PLEASE COMMENT ON CHAPTER 1 AND ANY SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS WOULD BE GREAT

Amber xx


	3. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

**_Sorry its not very long, hope you like it. Any comments would be great. thanks _**

**_amberxx_**

**_Stevie Rae's pov_**

'hello?'

'hey Z its Stevie Ra… wait a sec, Stark?'

'Yeah its me'

'oh hi, um… is Zoey around? I really need to talk to her, it's super important could you pass me over to her…'

'no'

'pardon? I dint quite catch that'

'I said no, I can't'

'well ok then I guess, she's probably too busy, saving the world and all. Can you ask her to call me back when she has time, please.'

'no'

'there no need to be rude, if she doesn't want to talk to me you should have just …'

'I'm sorry Stevie Rae, I didn't mean to sound rude. I'm sure she'd love to speak to you, Its just that I literally can't pass you over to her'

'where is she? is she okay?'

' right here and no, she's not okay'

'Stark, what's wrong, is she sick?'

'no, she's… she's gone'

' what? You just said she was there with you…

no, you don't mean…she can't be… tell me your making it up'

'I can't, I'm sorry, I wish I could.'

'how?'

'Kalona killed Heath -broke his neck, Zoey tried to stop him but was too late and her soul shattered'

'…oh goddess, so Heath's gone too? Surely there must be something you can do'

'we tried everything it's been a week.'

'a week! How come I wasn't told! didn't you think I should know that my best friend was… dead!'

'I'm sorry, we weren't sure that she really was… gone not until yesterday.'

'I thought you were supposed to be her warrior, why didn't you stop him! Why didn't you…'

'You're right, it is my fault. I wasn't there. I should have been there with her. I could have saved her, but I was angry. I left her on her own. I wasn't with her when she needed me most. I was too late'

'Stark, stop it I didn't mean what I said, it isn't your fault, I know you wouldn't ever do anything to hurt her, I only said it because, well its kinda my fault'

'_your_ fault?'

'she wanted me to come she asked me to and I said I couldn't. maybe if I had come with you she wouldn't have been alone, I could have stopped her…'

'don't cry. She wouldn't want you to cry.'

'are you telling me y'all didn't shed a single tear? Cause I don't believe that, so stuff what she would want, I'm going to cry because… 'cause she was my best friend and she shouldn't have died and now I don't know what I'm going to do without her.'

'you're right, everyone always tells you not to cry but you know what, you should. But its not your fault and now you are going to do what Zoey would have wanted, you are going to be a great high priestess for us red vamps and your going to do her proud.'

'thanks Stark. I'd better go, should I tell anyone else?'

I'm not sure. You'd better tell Lenobia, Dragon and zoey's grandma but I think that's all for now. were coming back tomorrow so the others will find out then.

'okay Stark, bye'

'bye Stevie Rae.'

Stevie Rae dropped the phone on the bed and tried unsuccessfully to swallow her tears, then giving up, she walked out of the dorm to find the fencing and horse masters, taking a slight detour to the bathroom to pick up some tissue to mop up her tears.

She found Lenobia and Dragon sitting side by side on a bench outside the staff building deep in conversation- because the fledglings were eating breakfast and classes didn't start for another hour. Both looked up as she approached them.

'what's the matter? Is something wrong?' Lenobia asked seeing her tear stained face. Stevie Rae didn't reply, she could seem to find her voice.

'what's happened' Dragon enquired.

'they're coming back tomorrow'

'tomorrow? Why?'

'its… Zoey' she managed to say

'She's not hurt again is she?' Lenobia quizzed alarmed 'that would never do. she's only just getting over her last injury.'

'no, she's gone.'

'she's missing? This it dreadful well send people out to look for her at once.' Dragon said.

'Zoey's not missing' Stevie Rae said. They both looked at her inquiringly 'she's… she's dead.' she last word was almost a whisper.


	4. Chapter 3

**_hi guys lots of drama in this one between Stark and Stevie Rae and a big problem._**

_**Chapter 3**_

Stark's POV

Stark carrying Zoey's limp form to his chest as they got off the plane- after insisting that he stay with her during the flight-. He bent and kissed Zoey's forehead. When he raised his head again, he stroked her cool cheek gently as he stared at her, she was so beautiful in death that he half expecting her to wake. But of course, she did not. She was never going to look at him again in that, he would never feel the warmth of her breath against his cheek when she lay beside him or see her blush. But most of all he would never be able to tell her how much he loved her, that's what hurt most of all.

As soon as he had descended the stairs, he was met by Stevie Rae with Dragon and Lenobia right behind her. Stevie Rae gave an almost silent cry at the sight of Zoey lying lifeless in his arms and started crying by the looks of the red rings around her eyes she had been doing a lot of that recently. The two adults didn't fare much better Lenobia paled and looked as though her knees might give way at any given moment and Dragon started raving about how much he hated Kalona. That not only was it bad enough for his favourite son to have killed his wife he had to destroy everyone else's happiness too.

Stark just watched silently. There was nothing he could do to comfort the people around him. Since his breakdown when Zoey had first died he had not cried just over a week earlier. But at that moment he was trying not to lose it because he knew that if he let a single tear overflow he would not be able to stop then he would be the one in need of comforting. What stopped him was the fact that he noticed a body missing from the group that had come to meet them ' where is zoey's grandma? You did tell her, didn't you?'

Dragon looked at him and said 'yes, of course we told her. But there was a slight… hitch.'

'a _slight_ hitch?' Stevie Rae repeated a little manically 'I'd call it more a big problem' she looked at Stark and continued 'grandma redbird told Z's mamma, you haven't met her-She kinda disowned Zoey because her step dad, who's a member of the people of faith, said vamps were evil which is why Zoey never really talked about her- well when she found out that Zoey was…dead, she was hysterical, and she marched down to the house of night and insisted to be let in to see Z. But obviously she wasn't there we told her that and said y'all would be back today and now she is at the H.O.N waiting for you to get back. that's why grandma redbird's not here she's waiting with Zoey's mamma.'

'Talking about hysterical, I think maybe _you_ need to sit down for a minute and calm down or you're going to do yourself damage. We've already lost one high priestess we can't afford to loose another.' the words were out of his mouth before Stark could stop himself.

'what? how could you… how _dare_ you try and tell me what to do?' Stevie Rae spat at him her eyes glinting red with fury.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean…'

'I can't believe you Zoey's only been gone a few days and already your trying to tell me what to do, is it 'cause I'm a high priestess or that I have an affinity or is it just that you feel the need to always be in control of someone's life, because you know what I don't need a warrior, and even if I did you would be at the bottom of my list of contenders. Why would I want to have you as a warrior you're hopeless. How long did you manage to protect Zoey for? A month? No wasn't even that long was it?'

There was a long silence as everyone stared at Stevie Rae and Stark who were both glaring at each other furiously.' Darius spoke first.

'Stark, you shouldn't have said that if you meant it or not and Stevie Rae you should show more self control if you are to be a successful high priestess then…'

'but I didn't even want to be a high priestess. It was always Zoey, she was the high priestess, not me. Sure y'all called me one but I never really felt it, I never felt like I deserved it.' and just like that she started crying again huge wracking sobs that shook her whole body, and she sank to her knees.

'come I think its time we leave and return home' Lenobia said, and then she turned and slowly walked to the first of two cars parked at the edge of the runway.

Stark went in the back of the Lenobia's car with Darius and Aphrodite in the passengers seat Zoey was lain across the back seat her head resting on Stark's lap. The others helped the still sobbing Stevie Rae into the second car which Dragon was driving and they started of for home.


End file.
